Avila heading down to Toledo

Detroit Tigers' Alex Avila (13) reacts after being hit by a pitch from Minnesota Twins relief pitcher Brian Duensing during the ninth inning of a baseball game on Sunday, June 16, 2013, in Minneapolis. Avila left the game but the Tigers won 5-2. (AP Photo/Genevieve Ross)

DETROIT — Tigers catcher Alex Avila is heading to the “City of Glass.”

Avila has been on the 15-day disabled list since Monday after taking a fastball to the forearm during Sunday’s game against the Twins.

He will be reporting to Triple-A Toledo Sunday to began his minor league rehab assignment.

“Very anxious. Very anxious. Was killing me just to watch,” he said. “I don’t like watching, especially — I mean, I haven’t played in a week. It’s felt like a month. I just want to play baseball.”

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Avila said he expects to return to the team as soon as he’s available to come off the DL July 2.

“I won’t be spending any more time on the DL,” Avila said.

The plan is for Avila to spend time catching, and as a DH while in the minors. He said he’s seen a noticeable difference as far as pain and swelling as the week progressed.

“It feels good. It’s gotten a lot better the past two or three days. It’s a night-and-day difference,” he said. “Swelling is down a lot. A couple days ago was the first time the swelling went down to where I was actually able to swing the bat a little bit. Each day it has gotten better and better and today I feel good as new.”

Aliva said, that similar to any bruise there is some discoloration of the area, but that the bruise looks worse than it actually is. The next step for Avila is to battle the lingering fatigue that he feels as he tries return to playing after sitting since the beginning of the week.

“Yeah, sometimes, but I think that’s more because I’ve had four or five days off, really not doing much, just kind of working out in the gym a little bit. The last couple days, doing baseball activities, it was a little sore, but nothing that’s of major concern,” Avila said.

He had a scan of the bruise and an X-Ray — both negative. He said the final step is to get his full range of motion back in his wrist. He credited his rehab process in aiding his speedy recovery.

“Once you get the swelling out of it, your range of motion comes back a little bit,” Avila said. “The other thing is, you’re working on it three, four, five times throughout the whole day, so there’s a lot of treatment over the last few days. If we didn’t work on it so hard, it would still be lingering.”

Brayan Pena and Bryan Holaday have been handling the catching chores in Avila’s absence.

Jackson back in the lineup

Austin Jackson returned to the lineup Saturday after taking Friday off to rest sore legs.

Leyland doesn’t feel like it’s anything that’s going to linger.

“I hope not, he felt like yesterday that he probably should take the day off — so I gave him the day off,” the manager said. “I hope it’s not something that I going to linger, I don’t think so, but I’ll play it accordingly.”

Having just come off the DL on June 14 after missing 30 games with a hamstring strain, Jackson didn’t think it was serious Friday, either.

“I don’t think so. I think just kind of do some treatment with it and kind of get that stiffness, soreness out of there. Things should be all right,” Jackson said. “Just kind of take it easy, don’t want to make it worse by doing too much.”

Matthew B. Mowery contributed to this report. He covers the Tigers for Digital First Media. Read his “Out of Left Field” blog at opoutofleftfield.blogspot.com.